how to address morale issues at work

How to Tackle Low Staff Morale (10 Proven Methods)

People are the most important resource in any organisation. they are the engine that drives productivity so their sense of morale at work directly affects the company’s success. managers thus need to take deliberate steps to deal with low staff morale..

Morale is a state of mind which involves feelings and emotions. Staff morale involves the attitude and perception of the employee towards their job, work environment, team members, managers and the organisation on a whole. Today, the causes of low staff morale can include:

In such an environment, employees focus more on their career choices, a sense of personal well-being and financial future and the cost of this attitude to companies is staggering. Gallup estimated that there are 22 million actively disengaged employees costing the economy as much as $350 billion dollars per year in lost productivity including absenteeism, illness, lack of teamwork, poor customer service and other low staff morale issues.

Managers must ensure employees are being effectively utilised through job enrichment in order to combat low staff morale . Here are ten ways to go about it:

Employees need to feel a genuine connection between themselves and management. That they share a common purpose and common goals. They need to know that management knows who they are, what’s going on with their job and that management is there to help them when needed.

The key is to spend time with them. You should regularly work right alongside with them if possible. Take your lunch or breaks with them. This shows them you do not consider them beneath you. It also gives you an opportunity to have more candid conversations for more accurate feedback.

Be transparent

One of the worst things you could do in a workplace with low staff morale is low is look the other way. It’s often tempting and easier to just sweep problems under the rug, or “shield” your staff from bad news you are receiving from above, but you are much better off being transparent. Employees will respect your honesty while “shielding” them leaves them feeling infantilised.

Give recognition

Employees want recognition and acknowledgment that their work has purpose and that it is appreciated. Never miss an opportunity to recognise when someone has done good work. Even a simple “thank you” every time an employee completes a task for you can go a long way.

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Make a conscious effort to recognise how the contributions of your employee have helped you get your job done or helped the company save money, so they know how valuable their work is. Awards and public recognition of work above and beyond are excellent ways to recognise the hard work of your staff. All employees want recognition from management and their peers .

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Train your managers

Managers need to be trained in things like emotional intelligence and communication because they have the biggest effect on engagement and morale: if they aren’t the direct cause of the low staff morale, it’s their responsibility to fix it. Therefore training them on how to use different leadership styles and how to go about giving feedback and recognition is one of the key steps to take.

Run a realistic company

Setting aggressive goals and pushing yourself and your team to the limit is inspiring, but reducing stress, maintaining work-life balance, and running a company with calm, healthy staff should be your real goal because that is what realistically produces sustainable growth for your company.

Unfortunately, nowadays long hours, excessive busyness, and sleep deprivation have become a badge of honor for many. However, sustained exhaustion is not a badge of honor and it’s sad that there is a toxic “always on” culture that romanticises it at the cost of real people’s health.

Help them grow

To keep employees motivated, give them a sense of progress and show them that they have something to look forward to on the job. It doesn’t always have to be a job promotion, give them both career and personal growth by helping them take courses or attend conferences that will improve their skills. As long as there’s a sense of growth and advancement they will be motivated.

Collect feedback

Show your employees that you are listening. Employees who feel they are being heard are more likely to be motivated at work. When they realise that their opinion counts to the company low staff morale is less likely to occur. Don’t forget to act on whatever feedback you receive . Even if you don’t actually implement every piece of feedback, thank your employees and get back to them about it.

Have team building activities

Weekly or monthly team building activities are a great way to lift your employees’ spirit. When morale is low, organise a team building activity like a team lunch or office games or theme days. These little things can go a long way in dealing with low staff morale. It’s amazing what a few slices of pizza can do for a lethargic team in the office.

Deal with the bad apples

Problem or under-performing employees can drain staff morale faster than anything. You must always take immediate action to deal with such issues before they become larger ones. Issues like racial or sexual harassment should be handled with strict intolerance.

Use progressive discipline to deal with under-performing employees . Check their progress with regular follow-up meetings. If there’s no significant consistent improvement, terminate for the good of the employee, yourself, the company and their colleagues.

Comfortable workplace

Promoting good posture, private workplace stations free of distractions, clean and tidy desks and comfort by allowing employees to move regularly is a way to fight low staff morale. If the employee is not happy sitting at its work station undoubtedly the performance will be affected. Always make sure your office chairs are comfortable and standing desks are another great option.

The key to dealing with low staff morale is managers maintaining a steady and healthy connection to their staff. When an environment of value and acceptance is generated through consistent recognition and open communication, it’s a win-win situation for the company and its employees.

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4 Tips to Overcome Low Employee Morale

by Sunny Tsang . In Employee Engagement .

Low employee morale is one today's most pressing management challenges.

Winners know that defense is as important as offense. It’s true in sports, board games, battle, and certainly when tackling the management challenges that plague the modern workforce. Among the many problems that should be approached with a balanced attention to both offensive and defensive strategies is the challenge of low employee morale.

When most leaders think about raising employee morale, their first thought is offense. Employee awards ceremonies and team building events come to mind. Leaders are understandably eager to implement programs, processes, and initiatives that drive employee morale up, and this instinct makes sense. These steps are the creative element of supporting employee morale; they’re all about building something new that will transform company culture .

To combat low employee morale, take both proactive and preventative measures.

What many leaders don’t realize is the undercurrent of successful employee morale programs is their less-flashy, yet equally impactful defensive strategies. Defensive strategies are especially effective when you’re working to overcome already-low employee morale. They exercise their impact by eradicating the invisible structures, factors, and even people that work against high employee morale. In doing this, defense paves the way for offense to make its move.

As a counterpart to our recent article, 9 Ways to Boost Employee Morale , the current article shares key defensive tactics that are less about pushing morale to its heights and more about rescuing it from its lows. The strategies shared here are preventative and target common workplace culprits of low employee morale which, until properly addressed, work actively against any proactive strategy a leader puts in place.

By incorporating both proactive and preventative tactics in your approach to supporting employee morale, you can create the most successful kind of solution possible for your company and transform its culture.

Tips to Overcome Low Employee Morale

1. stop micromanaging.

Micromanagement is one of the most effective ways to suffocate employee morale. It robs people of the critical sense of ownership they need for work to be meaningful and engaging. Beyond that, micromanagement diminishes efficiency because employees never get the opportunity to sink into concentrated workflows. Instead, they must constantly check in with their supervisors and course-correct in response to micro-pieces of feedback.

Make no mistake, frequent feedback is a central tenet of effective management, but there’s a glaring difference between that and micromanagement.

Micromanagement is not going to help raise employee morale.

Whereas micromanagement is founded on an absence of trust and involves a stream of ceaseless criticism, frequent feedback means calling out both strengths and areas for improvement with appropriate frequency. Additionally, frequent feedback is good for employee morale and micromanagement is decidedly not.

Weekly 1:1s are generally the right cadence for managers to check-in with direct reports. These meetings offer a fairly substantial period of time to exchange feedback but don’t take place so often that employees are never free to truly take the reigns over their jobs.

Couple weekly check-ins with an employee recognition program , and you’ll be able to shift the potentially benevolent intentions behind micromanagement into a practice much more conducive to employee morale.

2. Don’t Neglect Peer-to-Peer Relationships

It’s hard to go to work every day with people you feel no connection to. Humans are social creatures , and whether it’s a running club, church, or work, we have a tendency to find meaningful connections in any context that involves other people. When we don’t, the days feel especially lonely and productivity suffers.

One culprit behind low employee morale could be weak peer-to-peer relationships

In most cases where peer-to-peer connections are thin (if not nonexistent) it’s not because colleagues simply don’t like each other. More likely, the problem is that your work environment doesn’t facilitate meaningful interpersonal connections.

Managers looking to overcome low employee morale need to encourage employees to get to know one another through opportunities for outside-the-office connection, whether that’s happy hours or casual Slack channels. Additionally, encouraging peers to recognize one another for excellent work helps build trust between colleagues based on mutual expressions of gratitude. When peer-to-peer relationships are strong, not only will employee morale be more stable, productivity, engagement, and quality of work tend to improve, too.

3. Set Clear Goals (and Place Them Within Reach)

Work can feel like repetition, or it can feel like progress. If it’s the former, your team members are going to burn out, and they’re going to burn out fast. People die from monotony — maybe not literally, but employee morale certainly does.

For employee morale to soar, people need to feel like they're making progress.

On the flip-side, employees become highly motivated when they feel their work is driving progress forward. When employees feel that they’re contributing to a successful mission, they’re inspired to keep going — mostly because they have somewhere to go.

To help employees feel like they’re making meaningful progress , encourage managers to set challenging, yet attainable long-term goals. You know that tiny burst of joy you get when you check something off your to-do list? This is like that, times one hundred. Whether goals apply at an employee, team, or company-level, clearly communicate what they are and support employees in making plans to get there. Employees don’t necessarily need to hit every goal, but they should succeed at least 70% of the time. When they do, they’ll be left with a resounding sense of accomplishment that raises employee morale by contributing to a sense of progress.

4. Improve Work-Life Balance

Finally, perhaps the biggest enemy of employee morale is poor work-life balance . When employees don’t pay an appropriate amount of attention to their personal lives compared to professional, burnout ensues. Symptoms of burnout range from difficulty concentrating and headaches to sudden (unhealthy) changes in eating and sleeping habits. When employees experience burnout, morale all but disappears.

Poor work-life balance is another frequent cause of low employee morale.

You can promote work-life balance (and prevent burnout) by supporting wellness initiatives , offering flexible work options that accommodate family or medical needs, and most importantly, checking in with employees to make sure they feel equipped to thrive both in and outside the office.

Be sure you have these defensive strategies firmly in place, then check out our article 9 Ways to Boost Employee Morale to take your team’s morale to new heights. Amazing offense in combination with solid defense is the secret you need to win this management challenge.

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6 easy steps to increase low employee morale

Employees with high morale tend to be happier, more engaged, and try their best to achieve objectives. But, how can managers spot signs when it comes to low employee morale? Noticing a decrease in collaboration, negative interactions, and low performance, can feel like just the beginning.

It’s important for managers to know how and when to intervene.

That’s why we’re looking into the causes of low employee morale, to learn strategies to flip a negative employee experience into a positive outcome.

In this article you will find:

Causes of low employee morale

Effects of low employee morale

6 strategies to improve low employee morale

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Common causes of low employee morale

Learning the root causes of low employee morale helps is a key first step. We put together a list of common causes of low employee morale:

Minimal professional development

A 2017 survey done by Gallup indicated that “inadequate or a lack of professional and career development” can be a main driver for employee disengagement.

This data helps us understand that employees value learning more skills to grow their career. Noticeably, managers who don’t prioritize the development of their team will experience low motivation and productivity.

When managers prioritize the growth of employees, they feel valued, supported, and motivated.

Tip : Hold space for regular career conversations with your employees and learn about their career goals. Ask them questions like:

Confusion and unclear expectations

A lack of team transparency can cause confusion. Often, employees may not understand what’s expected from them which can lead to feelings of unnecessary stress, low employee satisfaction, and burnout.

Having clear goals set intentionally from managers gives employees concrete objectives to work towards.

At Officevibe, we developed our own collaborative goal-setting framework for managers and employees. We did this because we want each team member to have a meaningful stake in their own development. Check it out he re!

Tip: Host regular 1-on-1s with employees. Set clear goals and follow up on their progress. Ask questions like:

Difficulty adapting to change

Experiencing change at work can feel stressful. Whether it’s a shift to remote work, or in team structure. Either way, this is can cause negative effects when accompanied by a lack of communication.

When managers maintain transparency, it facilitates clear communication. Ultimately, teams need to know how changes will impact them. Let them know that you understand their concern and do your best to answer their questions.

Tip: Check in frequently with each of your employees. Try a simple tool like Officevibe’s employee engagement solution to keep track of how people are really feeling using weekly pulse surveys.

Response to the Covid-19 pandemic

Right now, your employees are doing their best during unprecedented times. Many people feel the imbalance between their work life and home life. When this isn’t addressed, it can cause employees to feel burnt out and disengaged .

Practicing compassion and empathy with your team will encourage a culture of flexibility and empathy.

Tip: Encourage employees to take personal days to rest and recharge. Lead by example by signing off at a reasonable time, taking time off, and prioritizing rest.

There are two common effects of low employee morale. Each one helps managers learn about how to create a positive culture for their team.

Decreased productivity and engagement

Employee morale tends to be low when people feel less motivated to help the company succeed. Without a team of engaged employees, it’s difficult for managers to build momentum towards objectives.

Research shows that employees experiencing low morale at work may also demonstrate a higher level of absenteeism. That means that one employee experience with low morale can affect others on the team.

Employee turnover

Experiencing high turnover can inspire feelings of instability. When this occurs, it’s important for managers to inspire a solid foundation for their team. This will prevent other employees from following suit.

The trickle down effects of decreased productivity and employee turnover can be detrimental on your overall team morale and organization.

6 Strategies to improve employee morale

Luckily, there’s a lot managers can do to alleviate the causes of low employee morale. Here are six strategies to help you improve employee morale:

1. Practice transparency

Rather than sweeping areas of concern under the rug, tackle them head on. Teams respect managers for taking action and working together to find a solution. Be open about recurring areas of concern and lead with vulnerability to inspire the same.

Tip: Send out a poll or survey at the beginning of the meeting to explore potential issues affecting your team. Then, discuss the results together.

2. Practice recognition

A lack of employee recognition may be one of the culprits to poor morale. It’s in a managers best interest to acknowledge individual efforts, celebrate small wins and draw attention towards strong leadership skills.

Tip: If you notice employees collaborate well, or show exemplary leadership abilities, congratulate them in a public channel. Call out how their work has impacted the greater team goals. Check out Officevibe’s employee recognition guide for more ideas!

3. Prioritize wellness

Setting aggressive goals and pushing your team might feel motivating, but pushing too hard causes employees to feel inadequate, and disengaged.

We recommend a more balanced approach. Start by integrating mindfulness and employee wellbeing practices. Prioritizing wellness is a great reminder to your employees that you care about them, which will result in them feeling supported.

Tip: Create space during team meetings for a minute of mindfulness. You can also encourage employees to turn their work related notifications off when they end their day.

4. Take part in employee growth

Keep employees motivated, by actively prioritizing their development. This can be done during regular 1-on-1 meetings . Employees will feel supported when they have the opportunity to develop new skills and are challenged in their role.

Actively encourage employees to be accountable for their engagement. When managers do this, they’ll notice a boost in employee morale and engagement.

Tip: Get to know the goals of your team. Whether they’re after a promotion , or wanting to expand on their existing skills, take time to understand how they want to develop.

5. Collect feedback

A great way to increase morale is to collect feedback from the team and show them that you’re listening. Even if you can’t implement every piece of feedback right away, you’ll be able to tackle achievable short term issues that benefit teams over the long term.

Tip: Set up an anonymous employee engagement platform like Officevibe or have informal team meetings. The more insight you collect as a manager, the more targeted your efforts will be.

6. Nurture human connection

Managers, it’s time to get creative and have a little fun! Organize team building activities to promote the importance of workplace friendships. This helps improve the dynamics of your team, a crucial element to boosting employee morale.

Tip: Remote teams can schedule optional virtual coffee chats or a virtual team hangout. Make this a weekly habit and you’ll notice relationships start to flourish. At the end of the day, the people we work with make our experiences more enjoyable and collaborative. Consequently a job becomes something to look forward to.

Remember that the more you connect with your people, the more you can guide them towards success. Positive employee morale can greatly impact their relationship with managers and with their peers.

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3 Signs of Low Employee Morale and How to Meet the Challenge

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When employee morale is running high, it can seem like there’s nothing your team can’t accomplish. Your workers are super-productive, they have a positive outlook and their work quality is stellar. But when employee morale is low, work output and outcomes can suffer, and trying to motivate your team can feel like pushing boulders uphill.

Low morale in the workplace isn’t necessarily a byproduct of a lackluster or toxic office environment. Unexpected, dramatic change is often a factor when there's a downturn in employee morale. Take the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, which has been extremely disruptive for businesses and their workers. Many companies had to turn their workforces into all-remote teams with little notice — and without a clear timeline for when previous business practices might resume.

Workers may also be juggling personal demands, like caring for family members, which can make it even harder to stay engaged in, and upbeat about, work.

For managers, bolstering employees’ confidence and mood can be a daunting task, especially if you are managing a remote team . However, it’s critical to meet the challenge of low employee morale, because it can cause top talent to leave at any time.

Strategies to keep up morale

How do you know if employee morale is sliding? Here’s a quick look at three telltale signs to watch for in your team members — along with some simple strategies for counteracting these issues.

1. A persistent, negative attitude

Sometimes, it’s hard for employees to conceal a foul mood after they’ve had a bad day at work. And even normal levels of work-related stress can give rise to frustration and discouragement. These are typical reactions to temporary problems. But a persistent, negative attitude — especially from someone who has otherwise been a positive force in your workplace — is a big red flag signaling severely deflated morale. A lack of willingness to cooperate with teammates or commit to new assignments is another clear warning sign of trouble.

How to address it: The first step is to identify what the problem is, whether it's simple or complex. Set up a time to talk one-to-one with your staff member. If you’re working remotely, schedule a video call so that the discussion is face-to-face. Ask your employee if the problem weighing them down is work-related or personal. If it’s the first, you can then suggest strategies for mitigating the issue. If it’s the latter, encourage your employee to take the time necessary to address the problem. Then make arrangements to ensure their responsibilities are covered in the interim.

Robert Half can help you hire highly skilled remote or on-site talent .

2. Poor work performance and quality

Missed deadlines, a high number of mistakes, or a decline in service levels can all be side effects of low morale in the workplace. Early signals that work performance and quality may be at risk include employees’ waning enthusiasm for or interest in their assignments.

Boredom is often a factor in a lack of initiative that can lead to poor work outcomes and dent morale. Your employees may be eager for new challenges. Or, on the other side of the coin, they may be feeling overwhelmed. If they’re feeling distracted and unmotivated, they might be struggling to meet their usual work standards.

How to address it: Foster an environment in which employees know they are expected to take the initiative, solve problems and demonstrate leadership. This is a vision you need to communicate clearly to your staff, because it is not likely to happen without you setting an example and providing guidance.

Have regular one-to-one meetings with your team members to gauge how they feel about the type and amount of work they are being asked to manage. Do they feel burdened by their workload? Or do they feel their assignments aren’t making the best use of their skills? Once you know what your employees need to be successful, and which projects appeal to them most, you can make adjustments.

Employee recognition is another way to keep productivity and employee morale high. Offer your staff members timely praise and low-cost awards, and, if possible, give them bonuses for their achievements. It’s easy to forget to express appreciation to your employees when stress and workloads are running high. But such recognition can go a long way toward raising the needle on morale in the workplace.

3. An overactive rumor mill

Communication is essential for successful staff management — and for bolstering employee morale during times of change. If you do not take a proactive, thoughtful and strategic approach to sharing information with your staff, you risk letting the rumor mill run wild. Don’t think that misinformation won’t run rampant in a remote work environment. In fact, it could spread even faster. And, before you know it, employee morale has taken a hit.

How to address it: Be quick to share updates with your team members, and make sure all employees who need to be in the loop on key announcements hear from you firsthand. Also, be honest with your workers about any changes that may impact their roles or the company. Armed with timely and accurate information, employees will be less inclined to fill in the blanks with their imagination. To help keep communication flowing, institute an open-door policy. Let staff members know they can approach you at any time to ask questions or express their concerns.

It’s important for managers to monitor the level of morale in the workplace. Addressing problems promptly and effectively will help your workers maintain a positive outlook and remain as productive as possible. The attention you give to buoying employee morale can help you fortify relationships with your staff and improve retention, too.

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How Managers Can Cause Low Employee Morale

Are your employees happy? Do you feel like they're performing at a level equal to their skills and potential?

Or do you find getting good work from them is like pulling teeth? Do some of them have one foot out the door (or, maybe, already left)?

We're all responsible for our own thoughts and attitudes, and the same goes for your employees. Yet, too often in the workplace, the conditions we create as managers make our employees unhappy, unmotivated, and ultimately crush morale.

5 Ways You're Contributing to Low Employee Morale

As a leader, it's important to recognize how you impact those around you. No matter where you are in the org chart, from first-level manager to CEO, your efforts and attitude impact your team.

Gallup calls this the "Cascade Effect" as they found engagement at one level impacts the morale of those below them in an organization:

low employee morale can be caused by gallup's cascade effect

However, your attitude alone is not enough to make someone on your team engaged and performing at their highest level. To truly improve employee morale, you have to take action on the things that cause frustration and ruin a workplace.

Below are 5 common ways managers contribute to even the best employees being discouraged and disengaged:

low employee morale don't manage using a one size fits all style

1) Not managing based on Task Relevant Maturity

Some managers are very hands off . They give their teams a wide berth and a lot of autonomy to do their jobs.

Other managers are very hands on . Some might even call them micro-managers when taken too far.

Both approaches are wrong.

Management is not one size fits all. Sometimes you need to be hands on. Other times, staying out of the way is the best thing you can do.

Enter: Task Relevant Maturity

Andy Grove, cofounder of Intel, coined the phrase Task Relevant Maturity in his management classic, High Output Management . Basically, it's taking the idea that you should be as hands on (or off) as needed, depending on the experience level of your employee for the specific task they currently have. This chart explains it best:

low employee morale can happen if you don't manage to task relevant maturity

The problem managers run into is that they look at Task Relevant Maturity at the employee level instead of the task level.

When an employee is taking on a new task or responsibility, they want guidance and help. When they struggle at doing something and there's no help to be found, it's frustrating and discouraging.

Meanwhile, when they know what they're doing, and they're meeting or exceeding your expectations, the last thing they want is you telling them exactly how to do their work.

How to change:

Consider each person on your team and where the stand in Task Relevant Maturity for their core responsibilities. Adjust how hands on or off you are based on that.

Also, use your one on ones to ask where they want more help and guidance. They'll appreciate the support where they need it and the focus on outcomes over micromanagement where they're comfortable.

2) Having an Asshole on the team

Whether at your current job or a past one, there's probably the name of at least one person that comes to mind when you think of an asshole in the work place. Think about how toxic they made the work environment. I can feel the dread all over remembering moments throughout my career.

Leadership expert and best-selling author Robert Sutton has dedicated his life to the cause of getting rid of work place assholes. In his book The No Asshole Rule , he highlights a series of facts that show the true cost of having one on your team:

Worse yet, they tend to spread:

low employee morale robert sutton knows you cant have assholes on your team

Have the courage to get rid of them

Too often companies are afraid to get rid of assholes. Many times, they're some of the best performers and you then find yourself compromising on values to keep them. That's a big mistake.

There's now research that shows how much you're better off parting with even the most talented asshole. In a working paper from Harvard Business School , Michael Housman and Dylan Minor were able to calculate the hidden cost of assholes:

"In comparing the two costs, even if a firm could replace an average worker with one who performs in the top 1%; it would still be better off by replacing a toxic worker with an average worker by more than two-to-one. "

This shouldn't be surprising. Given an asshole's toxic behavior negatively impacts the morale of everyone on the team, their productivity comes at the expense of others. When you add in the costs of replacing those that leave because of the asshole, costs quickly skyrocket before even considering all the lost time and energy from management trying to address the issue.

Build a case to get rid of the asshole on your team. Watch how happy the rest of your team is when they're gone.

Use that to build momentum toward continuing to keep assholes out of your organization. No one should dread working with their colleagues, so don't let an asshole kill your employee morale.

Ask Lighthouse: Dealing with Toxic Employees the Right Way

3) Giving your people only uninteresting work

We all have work in our life and job that we do not enjoy doing. Often, these get done because somebody's gotta do it. The problem that can occur is when that's all people get to do.

When someone has nothing but boring, menial tasks, and feels unchallenged, they are likely to get bored and disengage. That's a waste of their potential and the resource you put into hiring and retaining talent.

A story: The selfish manager

In a friend's past job they worked with a small engineering team. The leader of the engineering team would divide up work for all of the engineers.

Unfortunately, the team leader was selfish and untrusting. Since they managed and had to be an individual contributor, they kept all the most interesting and challenging tasks for themselves; this kept them motivated in the work and ensured any tasks given to the other engineers didn't require a lot of effort to manage and mentor the engineers.

The byproduct of this was damaging on many fronts.

First, the engineers were all disengaged from their work as they never got to work on interesting tasks, instead feeling like all they got were "scraps." Meanwhile, when the leader left because of burnout from doing too much themselves, the team became much more engaged.

However, despite the increased motivation, they were set up to fail. They were involved in so little of their part of the product they then struggled to collectively fill his shoes and understand how to move the product forward.

If they had been more involved from the beginning, they could have prevented the leader's burnout as less would have been on their shoulders. They also likely would have gotten more done from a team of motivated people leveraging the multiplier mindset as described in this awesome video by Rent the Runway's CTO, Camille Fournier:

A better way: Do things together & help them grow

Rather than having anyone stuck doing only boring or menial tasks, look to do them together .

As it turns out, not only does this avoid disengaging anyone, but people will work longer and harder on tasks that are done together . Stanford researchers Priyanka Carr and Greg Walton found that when you simply told people you were working together on a task, the following happened:

"Participants in the psychologically together category worked 48% longer, solved more problems correctly, and had better recall for what they had seen. They also said that they felt less tired and depleted by the task. They also reported finding the puzzle more interesting when working together."

Next time there are to be done, do them together and watch how much better things go than putting it all on one person.

Grow your people, too.

One of the best, yet overlooked, ways to boost employee morale is to invest in their growth. Whether it's learning a new skill, or having a clear path to the promotion they want, even modest efforts by you as their manager can help significantly.

We wrote about this recently in reference to remote workers , and it holds true for your team members no matter where they're located. It applies to both old and young people on your team, and it's especially true for Millennials; according to Mary Meeker's Internet Trends , the top desire of Millennials at work is "training and development":

Low employee morale - Mary Meeker shows millennials want to grow

How to Change:

Take the time to learn what the growth and career goals are for people on your team (one on ones are a great time for that). Even giving them the slightest support, or even a small amount of their time to work on it can be a huge morale boost.

A few ways to do that can be: buying them a book or resource, introducing them to a mentor, or getting them involved in a project they're interested in.

If you need help with goals and growth conversations, these posts can help: How to talk with your team about their career goals & What to do if someone doesn't know what their goals are.

Boosting morale can be hard, but you don't have to do it alone. Lighthouse can help guide you to the right discussions to make the most of your 1 on 1s and growth discussions.

4) Ignoring what your team tries to tell you

One of the biggest risks as a manager is your team resenting you. It can happen for many reasons, and when it does, you're in trouble.

When they resent you, they'll start disengaging, be less responsive to you, may ignore your requests, and otherwise make things difficult for everyone.

One of the major causes of resentment is when you as a manager don't listen. Most people will trust their manager until they demonstrate a reason not to be trusted. Barring something particularly bad happening, it usually comes from either not demonstrating you're listening or failing to keep your promises to them.

The double-edged sword: the one on one

One on ones are the most powerful tool in your arsenal to keep your team happy and motivated. Done well, they're an outlet for a variety of problems, coaching, feedback, and career conversations. Done wrong, they can be merely status updates , wasted therapy sessions, talking in circles, and a moment of dread for everyone involved.

If you're talking about the right things in your one on ones , then the most important thing is to really listen. It's a key skill as a leader as Melanie Whelan described in a great interview in the New York Times.

low employee morale happens when you don't listen - quote by melanie whelan

Don't avoid tough issues. Don't be afraid to ask a variety questions. Give them more than 10 minutes and really dig into a problem so you fully understand it.

Want to organize your 1 on 1 information in one place? Download our free meeting template below.

1 on 1 meeting template by lighthouse - download by clicking the link

Turn listening into action

And once you're listening, the key is to do something about it. Walk in their shoes for a second:

You finally work up the courage to bring up an issue to your manager. It's been driving you crazy for awhile, or maybe something happened that really upset you this week. Either way, it's finally out there and now you're optimistic things might get better with your manager's help. Then the meeting ends. And a week goes by. Then 2. Then a month. Nothing changes.

How would that make you feel? Are you going to bring up the next issue, or not bother?

When your team starts thinking that way you've lost. They will shut down and stop coming to you with problems. And that really is your job if you want to have an engaged team. The harsh truth is particularly visible in Gallup's research on engagement :

low employee morale - you have to listen and be approachable as gallup research shows

If you don't talk about the right things, really listen, and then take action on the discussion, it will all be for nothing. Your team won't trust you and keep coming to you. I don't think you want to bet on that sliver of green on the right chart above that doesn't even have room for the percentage that your team is engaged.

If you're not already having one on ones, then you need to start one on ones .

If you are, make sure you ask good questions in the meeting, and really listen. Then make sure you make progress on what you discuss. Even small wins can be tremendously powerful.

(If you need help with all of this, Lighthouse can help you stay organized, cover the right topics, and keep your promises.)

5) A lack of purpose

"My work doesn't matter." "Why do I even bother?" "No one cares."

If you have ever felt unappreciated or been stuck doing work that seems meaningless, you've probably said one of those statements to yourself. Right around that time, you probably found yourself either looking for another job or lowering the level of effort you put into your work.

Don't let your team feel that way.

Take the time to give feedback and let them know why their work matters and who notices. This isn't coddling, it's helping them feel valued.

A little praise goes a long way.

People want to feel appreciated and recognized for there work. Unfortunately, as we learned above about the asshole at work, "Negative interactions had a five-fold stronger effect on mood than positive interactions."

And it gets worse. In other research from Gallup , they found how much a lack of praise affected turnover:

"Employees who report that they're not adequately recognized at work are three times more likely to say they'll quit in the next year."

Or put more simply by the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics:

If you have low employee morale try giving more praise like mary kay

Mary Kay Ash knows a thing or two about praise. The car she's leaning on is a special pink Cadillac that top performers in her organization receive. Their approach to praise has helped Mary Kay Cosmetics grow to over $2.9 billion in revenue.

Give people purpose

The bigger your company becomes, the less clear it is how someone's work matters. It's easy to feel like a cog in the machine. As a manager, you have the power to change that.

As we move to a world where more and more workers are doing creative and non-repetitive work, we have to rethink motivation. Research shows money is not the best motivator to get the best work out of your people in creative roles.

Dan Pink shares this in his TED talk, and his central thesis that to motivate people today, you need to focus on 3 things: autonomy, mastery, and purpose :

" Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose : the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves."

When people feel like their work matters and understand how their contribution impacts a larger purpose, they're more motivated and engaged. It gives them the reason they need to do their best work.

Purpose + Praise = Winning Leadership.

Praise and purpose go hand in hand. You can give the best praise by tying it to a greater purpose:

"I loved your attention to detail on that report, Malena. It really shined when we presented it to the client. It was a critical part of closing them and they're one of our biggest customers." "Thanks for coming in so early to help hot fix that bug, Stas. It would have affected a lot of our customers and it was starting to crush our customer success team. Fixing it so quickly saved the success team a lot of time and really impressed some of our bigger customers who don't move that fast."

The best praise is specific . In both of the examples above, the praise recognizes exactly what you liked about what your team member did, and it shares exactly why what they did mattered in the big picture of your company.

If you give that kind of praise, there's a good chance they'll put in the same effort next time you need it.

Take a look at the work your team is currently doing. Have you explained to them why it matters? How will it impact customers? How will it help coworkers do their jobs better?

Take a few minutes to talk to them and find something you really like in their work and specifically praise them. If you're looking for more advice on giving awesome praise, this post can help.